
Translated from Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon
My latest read for #Witmonth comes from Iceland a country I am rather fascinated by as it’s a place I visited in 2017. I now really want to visit again. While reading I was googling pictures of the incredible landscape.
(It’s yet another book that I’m not counting for #20booksofsummer as I am trying to get the last four from my original list read now.)
At the heart of Butterflies in November is a free spirited woman, whose life it set on an entirely new course, thanks to an Icelandic road trip and deaf-mute four year old. It’s a charming novel full of colourful characters, long empty roads and self-discovery.
On the day that our unnamed narrator is dumped by both her lover and her husband, she runs over a goose and kills it. It’s not the best of days, she’s a thirty-something woman, a proof-reader who delivers her finished work to her clients by hand. Suddenly she is on her own, moving into a new apartment with her estranged husband dropping round every five minutes. What she wants is to get right away, far away – and she starts dreaming of a tropical get-a-way. However, her plans are thwarted when her best friend, expecting twins is hospitalised for the last three months of her pregnancy. The friend already has a four year old son – Tumi, a deaf child who communicates with a mixture of sign language and sounds difficult to decipher.
“The only thing mothers have in common with each other is the fact that they slept with a man while they were ovulating without the appropriate protection”
When Tumi’s mum asks our narrator to take care of him while she is hospitalised, she is suddenly thrust into a maternal role she is not very comfortable with. With no real idea how to care for a young child, much less one with Tumi’s needs – she can’t sign – there’s a difficult start for both of them. Tumi chooses some numbers for a big lottery draw and they win. Needing a break, and having charge of Tumi for three months, our narrator decides to put some distance between herself, her ex-husband and his new partner.
“You bid your husband farewell forever with a vigorous handshake and then meet him the next morning buying sesame seed bread rolls in the local bakery, queuing in the bank at lunchtime, swimming in the pool in the afternoon, or at the registry office later in the week, and then, the weekend after that, at the theatre with his new significant other – always inevitably bumping into each other.”
So, setting aside her previous tropical plans, she and Tumi set off on a trip across Iceland with a glove box stuffed with lottery winnings. Her destination a summer cottage over on the East coast near to where she grew up, a prefabricated cottage with no electricity she won in another competition (I wish I had such luck). More unusually (for Icelanders) is that she and Tumi set out in November.

Along the way our narrator encounters long, lonely roads, storms and the haunting rugged landscape of the Icelandic Ring Road. Tumi sits quietly in the back, and initially it is easy to forget he is there. She and Tumi have various overnight stops along the way, and as they travel and get to know one another better, they also meet a handsome falconer, an Estonian choir, stop at a cucumber farm and little Tumi comes away with a kitten. As the unlikely duo travel an understanding between them begins to develop, the author depicts their changing relationship beautifully. We can feel out narrator’s focus start to shift, she makes mistakes but has more understanding for Tumi than she realises.
“It’s difficult to gauge distances in the dark; there are no landmarks here. If there were anyone else around I’d ask for directions. I can see through the rear-view mirror that Tumi is tired and feel such an overwhelming responsibility, it’s worse than being alone – I’m responsible for another person’s happiness. The area is incredibly black. No echo of life disturbs the silence of this wilderness.”
Throughout the novel in italicised sections we get flashbacks to our narrator’s past – things that help us understand what has brought her to where she is – and her attitudes to relationships and motherhood.
I really enjoyed this novel – I loved the setting especially, and Tumi is a delightful little character. My only grumble comes right at the end of the novel, which seems to end rather abruptly. I actually thought there was about 40 pages to go – when it all ended – and there were instead a lot of recipes (food mentioned in the book) that follow. I was quite taken aback – I reread the last two or three pages and yes, it works and hangs together – but still feels very abrupt.

Lovely review, Ali. Very much in line with the style of the book. You’re right, it is a rather charming read, even if it does run out of steam somewhat towards the end. There’s something quirky or idiosyncratic about it too, possibly a reflection of the Icelandic culture?
Thank you, yes it is a book that reflects the personality of the country. It really made me want to go back.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this, Ali. I loved it but will have to go back and look at that ending. It’s several years since I read it. I do remember those strange recipes, some of them definitely not to be tried at home.
Oh gosh yes, some of the recipes are a bit out there!
It sounds good. What is Iceland like?
I was only there 5 days, and we stayed wholly in Reykjavik except to go out Northern Lights hunting by coach at night. It’s a lovely place, quite laid back, some lovely buildings lots of nice tea shops and cafes and expensive jumper shops. We were there at the end of February, I would like to go again in summer.
Sounds lovely apart from the abrupt end. I’m not a fan of those either! I think the only Icelandic books I’ve read are crime ones, so this would be a bit of a welcome change! 😀
Yes, I know about the crime books. I actually read one several years ago. I meant to read more but I’m not good with modern crime.
This sounds delightful. Like Kaggsy I think I’ve only read Icelandic crime novels, so I really should try and redress the balance a bit!
It was quite a delight, I so loved that child character. I think there are probably quite a lot of those Icelandic crime novels around, so perhaps not surprising you’ve ended up reading those.
I really enjoyed this one – review here https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/book-reviews-modernity-britain-1957-1962-and-butterflies-in-november-books-20booksofsummer-wit/ although not as long as yours. And I find I have done WIT month before after all, as I counted this for it back then!!
Yes it was you who passed this one on to me. Had it tbr quite some time.
[…] But it was really nice to read a light-hearted #WIT who made me laugh. Heaven Ali liked it too:) […]
[…] Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir translated from Icelandic by Brian FitzGibbon is a book I got from Liz ages ago and I’m so glad I got around to it this #witmonth. It was a delight – a free spirited woman, whose life it set on an entirely new course, thanks to an Icelandic road trip and deaf-mute four year old. It’s a charming novel full of colourful characters, long empty roads and self-discovery. The ending was rather abrupt I thought – but that is perhaps a small criticism. […]